Seattle Pacific University endorses the rights and responsibilities of transfer students established by the Washington Student Achievement Council. Your credits earned from a nationally recognized, degree-granting institution of higher education in academic areas offered at Seattle Pacific University usually will be accepted in transfer. (To be “nationally recognized” means that the institution’s accreditor has been reviewed and accepted as a national accreditor by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation or the U.S. Department of Education.)
If you have earned credit from an institution outside the U.S., see how credit from an international institution transfers.
The University reserves the right to deny credit for courses that are not compatible with those offered in SPU's degree programs in content, depth, or rigor. College courses numbered below 100/1000, technical and vocational courses, developmental education or remedial courses, English as a Second Language, credit for life experience/travel, credit for work experience, and DANTES credit by examination do not transfer, regardless of an institution’s accreditation. Credit for military service is limited to three credits of physical activity awarded for basic training.
Credit for approved standardized exams will be awarded based on official score reports sent directly from the testing program, using SPU’s credit-granting criteria.
Your college courses will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis to determine their transferability and to ensure that courses are applied appropriately toward general education requirements and requirements in your intended program of study.
Students who have earned a Washington state DTA (Direct Transfer Agreement) associate degree or approved comparable degree from Oregon or California before beginning classes at SPU, enter with all general education requirements complete, except University Foundations (UFDN) coursework. With few exceptions, these students are awarded 90 credits and junior class standing upon entrance, meaning they must complete only 10 credits in UFDN.
SPU’s Transfer Course Equivalency Guide may be helpful to you as you plan courses prior to transfer or if you would like to see how courses you have already taken will transfer. If a class is not listed in the transfer equivalency guide for your institution, this does not necessarily mean that the course will not transfer. It may indicate that we have never had a student present the particular course, from that specific institution, for transfer before.
For more information about a class not listed in the equivalency guide, contact your undergraduate admissions counselor if you have not yet beeen admitted to SPU. If you have been admitted, you may contact an academic evaluator in the Office of the Registrar for more information.
Detailed information about how your exams, college-level classes, and two-year degrees may transfer is found at the links below:
If you have received a course evaluation and have questions about how your courses or exams have transferred, contact an academic evaluator in the Office of the Registrar.